Breakin Necks and wrecks

     Ok so during the final week in Ventura things really started to go well. My heart rate was getting lower and the body started to feel better as each day went on. On March 12th I beat my previous record up wheelers canyon by over 1 minute, stoked when on the way home I had a brutal crash. I went over a guard rail smashed my head on a post breaking the spinus process on my c7 vertebrae before getting caught up in a barbed wire fence. I knew something was wrong immediately because of how hard it was to breath.

      Initially the doctors looked at my x rays and said I was fine, I was so relieved to leave the hospital and go home. I had a shower and skyped my folks when Jeff's phone rang. It was the doctor he said I needed to go back. This was the scariest car ride of my life thinking if I turned my head I could cause irreversible damage. Jeff and I spent 5+ hours in the ER, I was braced up and put into a CT scanner as and we awaited the ER doctors prognosis. When we got home I couldn't sleep I don't know if it was the stress of being in the hospital all day the new neck brace I was sporting or just the unknown of what was to come.

     I got up the next morning opened my computer to email and facebook people back home but the screen just went black. I thought to myself "Oh it must have turned off" so I tried turning it back on......nothing. Perfect timing. I now had 4 days to kill before my flight home. I wrestled with the idea of flying home early but because the ER doc said not much could be done and the fracture was stable I decided to stay. Its been exactly 14 days since the accident and I am improving, and still waiting to see a specialist back home in Vancouver. I am super lucky I can still walk or to be alive for that matter. A huge shout out to Jeff Ain for helping me through this, carrying my stuff in the airport and spending hours and hours with me at the hospital. Don't know how I would have made it home without ya buddy!

     Once returning home I helped out with Cycling BC's spring break camp, it was great to see all the juniors and dEVo kids again. I could only help at the track sessions because I cannot ride but it was nice to get out of the house. I am hoping all goes well with my recovery and hopefully I can get this brace off in the next 4 weeks. Less would be awesome but at this point I really just want to get back to 100%. Hopefully I have something to write about in the coming weeks.

As always I gotta thank everyone for all their support it means a lot.

cheers,
Mike

Ventura 1.5

We are 11 days into our camp here in Ventura and time is flying by.

The riding is incredible tons of climbs, awesome twisty descents and generally excellent weather. Of all the places I have been for training this is the most well rounded for weather, and riding terrain. We haven't really had a chance to go to the beach, although Aidan and I did find a good mexican place during our easy spin of the beach.

The first couple days shocked my system hard, lying in a dark room or on the couch for 2 months really didn't help. As the days have gone on I have been able to get my heart rate up high without symptoms, I am very happy about this and can now just focus on riding. Its difficult to second guess how hard to go, or will this effort put me back. The scene where Michael Clark Duncan in Green Mile pleads to Tom Hanks not to be put back in the dark sums up what I was thinking about being back in my room for any more time. We also discovered we have a cat in the house, not so much we as Aidan did when he got up one morning. The tiger in the bathroom scene from the Hangover mimics his reaction while being sleepy in the morning. This is the clip I am talking about here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqxJ-MvrDRg

At the end of the first week the team headed to Goleta for the Island View Classic Criterium. We decided it was best for me to sit this one out with the risk of hitting my head again being the biggest reason. I shot some video and watched the race unfold, the whole time wishing I could have been out racing. The others rode really well crushing the race by taking 7 of 9 primes, Adam De Vos soloed for the win and Aidan finished 4th.

( Here is Adam Soloing in for the win)

This week we have logged more miles, and took a trip to the LA velodrome. I have always wanted to ride LA and finally got my chance. Walking into the facility is crazy when comparing it to any other tracks I have been to; the layout, tons of seating, weights on either end and fully netted volleyball area in the center. Its well organized minus having bathrooms upstairs from the rider area. We rented some of their bikes, non of us knew we would be riding the track so we didn't bring our bikes. Their entire fleet is made up of Felt tk2s, a solid bike for sure. The track itself is super smooth and very tall compared to my home track of Burnaby. We did a usual warm up then a points race drill after that I jumped in on the workout that was going on already and finished with some flying 1.5k efforts.

I couldn't think of a better way to get back into shape for racing than this, thank you to all the sponsors, Jeff Ain, Richard Wooles, and Cycling BC.

Thanks,

Mike